Renovations at northern Nicosia’s central Selimiye mosque will be complete by the beginning of the Holy month of Ramadan, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar was informed on Tuesday.

He was visited by a group of people working to renovate the mosque, and after the meeting said he hopes to be able to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers at the mosque this year. The month of Ramadan is set to begin on March 1, with Eid al-Fitr set to begin on March 30.

Tatar added that the Selimiye mosque “contains great memories” and has “added great strength to the TRNC’s spirituality”.

The Turkish Cypriot people, who are part of the Islamic world, have continued their fight with the sound of the call to prayer,” he added.

The Selimiye mosque was originally built as a church named Hagia Sophia, with ground having been broken in 1209 and the church having been consecrated over a century later in 1326.

When Cyprus was under Lusignan rule, the church was the place of coronation for the Kings of Cyprus, and later became the coronation church of the Lusignan Kings of Jerusalem and the Lusignan Kings of Armenia.

The church also housed the trials of the Knights Templar in 1310.

It suffered severe damage during the 1491 Cyprus earthquake, but was largely restored in the following years, and became the centre of Nicosia when the Venetians built the city’s walls in the 16th century.

The church was converted to a mosque when Nicosia was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1570, and minarets were added the same year. It remained the largest mosque in Cyprus until the Hala Sultan mosque in Mia Milia was completed in 2018.

Renovations at the Selimiye mosque began in 2020.